What do you do when paras are not doing their jobs? These tricks and tips can help get them back on track in the classroom.
This spring is presenting new challenges for teachers all across the country. Some of us are getting ready to go back to the classroom for the first time this year. Some of us have been in person all year, but we are about to get new virtual kids. Some of you have been in the ... Read More about Classroom Management and Expectations
IEP goals for severe and profound students: There is much debate on the language, so let's stop arguing over words, and instead meet the complex needs of these students.
All long time ago and very, very far away from my current location, I got my first job as an SLP. In addition to many students in the general education setting, I served two severely impaired classrooms. In one class, the students spent much of the day on side liers being tube fed and given
Students all over are obsessed with Counting Stews and Brews™️. Who knew counting and sorting could be so much FUN! Students are ASKING to play counting stews over and over. They get SO excited when I bring out a new counting stew to match our learning theme.
Request an invite to our “Supercharge Your Centers” course to learn how to implement independent and engaging Pre-K & Kindergarten centers!
Why calling on students should be the LAST strategy you use to find out what they know...and how to get ALL kids involved instead.
Our little French homeschool! Notre petite école à la maison!
Vue sur Pinterest. Cette photographie m’a inspirée. Je suis désolée je ne peux pas donner la source de l’image. Pourquoi ne pas mettre à disposition des enfants des gros feutres ou de…
Teaching science in the special education classroom can be one of the most interesting but challenging topics for our students. Hop over to find some ways to present it and document progress for alternative assessment.
Tornadoes, lightning, rainbows, and more!
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A world map printout to use for various crafts or activities!
The start of spring and the windy weather we have been having always makes me think of Kites. We don’t usually have much luck when we try to fly our own kites, but we have had fun crafting some very pretty ones. When Emily was little we make a Triangle Shape Kite, but this time we tried something a little different. To make our kites we used Bleeding Tissue Paper, cardstock, straws, yarn and some colored construction paper. The girls always love working with bleeding tissue paper, it has a somewhat magical property to it which is always fun. If you have never tired it before we definitely recommend it. First, I cut out cardstock in the shape of a Kite and then Juliette got to work with the bleeding tissue paper. She covered the paper with a little bit of water then placed the pieces of bleeding tissue paper over the water. They like to brush over them with a little more water to make sure they are sticking down to the paper well. Once the paper is covered to satisfaction we just set them to the side and let them dry. Now for the fun part, Juliette pulled off all of the bleeder paper to see the beautiful colored design that was left behind…MAGIC!!! To put the kites together we cut pieces of colored straws to glue horizontally and vertically across the kite. Then we glued on a long piece of yarn and construction paper bows for the tail. Juliette was very excited to help me glue it together with the glue gun. Since we have had a hard time gluing straws to paper in the past I figured this would be the best way. For another windy day project check out the Windsock Craft we made to go with the book The Wind Blew. Follow our ADVENTURES on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter!
Hey y'all! Earlier last week I posted over on my Instagram about using Unique Learning in my classroom, trying to figure out a doable schedule, and choosing which activities are worth my time and which are just not a great fit. If you have ULS, you know that it is VERY overwhelming with an insane amount of materials and information. Let me just preface this with: I am NO expert on ULS. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time (honestly) but I've been trying to find a good groove this year and here is what I've got so far! So as November began, I sat down with a glass of wine and started digging through all of the November lessons. This month is all about People Long Ago, which is great for November and adding in some Now vs. Long Ago work! There are certain lessons I ALWAYS do (the comprehension ones for 1-4 and the vocabulary sorts always happen!). There are certain lessons that I HATE (that might be a strong word but there are a few lessons on the Elementary level that I truly do not like at all). Some of the lessons I never use are the telling time, the "history" lesson (which is always a timeline and basically just ordering numbers in numerical order), the scrambled sentences, and a few others. Again, these things are just MY personal preference, and obviously things change with different groups of students! I started by emptying out this tub (ignore the tabs, those are all wrong and I still need to update them!). Inside the tub I put all of the printed materials in order from beginning of the month until the end of the month. Once I get around to changing the tabs, they are going to have the days of the week on them to go along with my monthly plans calendar! I assigned 1-2 activities to each day of the month and do most of them in whole group format this year. This lesson (lessons 3 & 4) is a must-do this month. It is a great way to work on comprehension but also adds in some History standards to cover those bases with my kiddos! The other comprehension lessons (lesson 1 & 2) are always another "must do" with my students. I love that they differentiate the comprehension questions page (3 levels: 1 with just words, 1 that you see above with pictures, and another that has pictures but only 1 question per page). It provides easy differentiation when you need it! We also did the additional materials that went along with this lesson which was awesome because there were no wrong answers for the "needs" web! This vocabulary sort lesson is another lesson I always do with my students! It's a great way to practice the material we are working on while also working on sorting, cutting, gluing, etc.! This now & long ago sort is another activity we are using this month (it is a part of my Now and Then Activities Unit) along with some now & long ago bingo! This will be a great way to practice sorting those items that we are learning about from the past and the present and to check for my student's understanding. These are also the crafts we are doing in the coming weeks (you'll see them on my calendar!) and they are all from Gabrielle over at Teaching Special Thinkers. I LOVE her Easy Art Crafts! We also have a subscription to News2You, which I LOVE, and we do that once a week during our whole group time. If you don't have News2You, I would definitely look into it! It's cheaper than ULS and has a tons of worksheets that go along with the weekly paper which is awesome! Obviously we are doing more than what was pictured above from this month's ULS, so take a peek at my monthly calendar up above to see which lessons we are hitting this month! I might not use all the same lessons next month, as it depends on the content, but hopefully this gives you a good idea of how I'm using it for now! I feel like I could go on for days about different things inside ULS and would love to hear what some of your challenges, strengths, and favorite parts are! How do YOU use this in your classroom?!
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The best classroom setup ideas to get your class ready for back to school including the best classroom layout and desk arrangements.
